1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the transport of containers on board ships.
Container carrying ships generally use, for positioning and securing the containers in the hold, slides cooperating with the corners of each container. Above the hold, the containers are positioned on the sealed closure panels by means of manually placed bars, chains, tensioners etc. An improvement has been made there-to, for facilitating the positioning and stowage of the containers on the panels, which consists in extending the slides above the panels. These slides must then be interrupted, or have a removable part, so as to allow the panel to move in a horizontal plane during its opening movement so that, when it is desired to unload a container stored in a given hold, it is first of all necessary to remove all the containers placed in several piles on the closure panel of this hold, which represents considerable work and a considerable waste of time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,384 proposes using, on a container carrying ship having a storage space inside which are disposed container receiving cells each formed by a group of vertical slides extending above this storage space, using independent closure panels each designed so as to slide inside a group of slides. Each independent panel has at its opposite ends hinged parts which, in the closed position of the panel, come into the extension of this latter which then has a length greater than that of the cell formed by the slides. This arrangement has the drawback of requiring interruption of the vertical slides at the level of the deck, and of preventing storage of the panel in another available slide group.